Digital Cultures

Creeber starts of by stating that the study of New Media is a 'Complex and Diverse' field. In his work 'Digital Cultures' Creeber takes about Modernism and Post-Modernism and how they lead to and relate to New Media theory.

'Modernism is the umbrella term we give to the way that human society responded to the changes that took place during the industrial revolution.'(Creeber, 2009: pg 11).

When Modernism came about in the late 19th century it was received by the majority of society to be this scientific way that would take the human race forward and be revolutionary in the production process, and with the rise of Modernism came Industrialization.
Industrialization brought about arguably the most important production invention of all time, the printing press. The invention of the printing press gave birth to a way of relaying news to the masses in a way that was never done before.
Many Modernists believed the introduction of Industrialization to be the looming down fall of originality, that 'modernists came to perceive industrialization as the enemy of free thought and individuality' (Creeber, 2009: pg 12).
The best example of this being true was in Henry Ford's case. Henry Ford profited significantly from industrialization when he made adjustments to the assembly line method, this allowed him to produce auto mobiles faster and cheaper and this also meant that they were more accessible to ordinary Americans. However because they were all mass produced this meant there was no discernible difference in the final products.

'when asked what colours his cars came in, Ford famously replied, any colour as long as its black'. (Creeber, 2009: pg 13)

'There are many examples that reflect modernism's disdain for the media,' (Creeber, 2009: pg 12). The best example and most famous of theorists that took a stance against this was The Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School consisted of a group of Marxists that where exiled from Germany during the second world war and came to America. The Frankfurt School seen the media culture in America as a prime example of a culture that had become a 'standardized product of industrialization' (Creeber, 2009).

After the industrial revolution there came Post-Modernism. With the coming about of post-modernism came the society of consumers, in this era products where starting to made to fit the consumers needs rather than the product being made for manufacturings sake. From the point when this cultural change started it hasn't changed it has just become more demanding and now products are created to fit our every need and this is a result of the consumer society being embraced as it has been. The way of consuming has come on some much that even when your watching television your not passively consuming it your more evolved and you interact with it. New media is interactive.

'New media is interactive. In contrast to traditional media where the order of presentation was fixed, the user can now interact with the media object.' (Manovich, 2002)

Bibliography: 

Creeber, G & Martin, R. (2009). Digital Theory: Theorizing New Media